


Always So Certain You're Fine

by lanestreets, SmilesRawesome



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: FIX! IT! FIC!, Fix-It, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-19 05:36:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14867633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lanestreets/pseuds/lanestreets, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmilesRawesome/pseuds/SmilesRawesome
Summary: They're grieving, sure, but they have a war to win, still, and by some miracle, they do it.Or, the Infinity War fix-it that no one asked for.





	Always So Certain You're Fine

**Author's Note:**

> this is a fic that i started and amy got mad that i was neglecting, so amy finished it. subscribes to the 'soul world' headcanon. written to resolve that nonsense infinity war stuck us with. have a bit of a happy ending.

They’re not quite sure how it happens. How it works. But it does. 

Nebula brings Tony back to Earth, and they find the others holed up in Wakanda, bleeding and bruised and utterly fucking  _ broken, _ and just trying to figure out something to do, somewhere to go from here. Thor is the only one who seems to be functioning with any sense of normalcy when they return. Natasha is obviously repressing, Bruce looks hollow, Shuri can barely concentrate enough to fix Rhodey’s leg braces, Rocket is methodically destroying anything he can get his hands on, Okoye stands like a statue, a silent guardian over the others because it is all she is certain she can do in that moment. M’Baku has gone back home with what remains of his people. 

Steve is inconsolable. He won’t talk to anyone, barely lets Shuri look at his wounds, keeps to himself, tucked away from the others. Tony doesn’t call him out on it. He feels much the same way. 

He held Spiderman, Peter Parker, a fifteen year old  _ child _ , in his arms as he died and it was all his fault. He knows Steve watched Bucky and Sam die too. He can’t imagine how Steve’s feeling. None of them bother Steve. 

No one bothers Tony either. They fly Pepper in, and they give them some space, and everyone just lets it be.

Actually, for the most part, they all stay silent as the dead. 

Hah.

Isn’t that some kind of fucked up irony. 

The silence isn’t broken until a few days later when Nebula gets fed up. 

They’re all in Shuri’s lab, Tony, Natasha, Rhodey, and Okoye still nursing some wounds, Steve just healing from his, all of them completely lost on where to go when Nebula shoves herself to her feet. 

“From what I had heard of Terrans, I thought you’d all be a bit more resilient. Thanos is still out there and yet you sit here like kicked dogs afraid of their masters. It’s pathetic.”

The whole room freezes, eyes on her. Steve hears something mechanic whir by Nebula’s eye. He scowls and crosses his arms over his chest, glaring at her across the room. 

“We’re healing from a loss, Nebula. What can we even do? He’s got all six stones. We can’t just dust ourselves off and go at him again! There aren’t even half of us left! They haven’t even finished clearing the battlefield of bodies! At least let us bury what’s left of our dead,” he spits at her, his voice full of vitriol no one was expecting from him. “Besides. Not even Thor’s axe to the chest stopped him. What else is there?”

“Aim for his head next time,” Nebula snaps back, and leaves the room. Natasha follows, and the room lapses back into silence. 

Hours later, Shuri screams in what sounds like delight. 

Everyone looks at her like she’s gone nuts. 

“I’ve got it! Electric Man, bring your axe to my workbench.” Thor complies without hesitation. He claps her on the shoulder, and leaves it there for a moment, a brotherly gesture. She doesn’t shrug him off. She almost leans into it, and then she lifts the axe. Thor’s hand falls away on its own, his jaw dropping a bit in shock. 

“Even Steve was unable to lift Mjolnir, and Stormbreaker is even more difficult to wield. You impress me, young Queen,” Thor says softly.

Shuri pays him little attention. “I need to modify this weapon. If I add something I’ve been working on to this, I think I can make it even more powerful. It could make it even more effective against Thanos, especially combined with your lightning. Given the chance again, you could embed this weapon in his skull and give him the end he deserves.”

Thor lets her work. 

She calls on Tony’s assistance exactly once, just because she needs the extra hands. 

In the end, there is an intricate metal something wrapped in the wood of the axe’s handle, strangely beautiful and thrumming with energy. Shuri hefts the axe and passes it back to Thor. 

“If you get a shot at that big purple bastard again, you bury that in his forehead and pass as much electricity through it as you can. If it does not work, I will eat my multitool,” Shuri says, as Thor takes his axe back, a poor attempt to lighten the mood. After a beat, she continues. “You make that monster pay. For my brother. My mother. Watch the light in his eyes go out and tell me exactly what it’s like.”

Thor nods solemnly, and once again places a hand on Shuri’s shoulder. “I promise I will do as you command, young Queen. If you also promise me that you will not forget that you are not alone. There may not be many of us left, and I know we will never replace who you’ve lost. But we are still here.”

Shuri does lean into his touch then, just a little, so Thor drags her into a full on hug, and for the first time since T’Challa and her mother faded out of existence, Shuri cries. 

The others all trickle out of the room then, except for Steve. 

“I know you’re hurting,” Steve says, when Shuri finally pulls away and dries her eyes on the edge of her sleeve, effectively cutting off the apology he was certain she was going to offer. “I know you’re capable and a lot of people, us included, depend on you for a lot of things, but you’re just a kid, Shuri. You’re only a kid who just lost her family. I was a kid who lost his family once too. Don’t feel bad if you have to take a little time for yourself, every once in a while. You can’t shoulder everything all at once.”

“Neither can you,” Shuri counters easily, her voice scratchy. “You just lost people too.”

“I’m a soldier. It comes with the territory.”

“You big men. Always so certain you’re fine, no matter what happens. If I am allowed to take time, even with everything that rides on my work doing what it needs to, then so are you, Captain. You are only human as well. Do not be a hypocrite. It’s unbecoming of everyone’s favorite white boy.” 

Something like a genuine smile spreads across her face then, and Thor chokes out a laugh, and Steve almost smiles, and for a split second, it seems not so awful. 

Then Nat and Nebula come in, Rhodey on their heels, talking stratagems and strategies and a battle plan and everything crashes back to Earth again. 

It was nice while it lasted. 

It takes them a few more days and a lot of coffee, but they finally put something together. A patchwork plan, a hail mary, something so goddamn desperate it just might work. 

It is brutal, and ends with Nebula’s body in pieces. 

But it also ends with Thor’s axe firmly embedded in Thanos’ forehead, electrical burns scorched across his ugly face, and the ground around them. Thor severs Thanos’ head, just for good measure. 

Nebula laughs, just the wrong side of hysterical, when it’s done, and then Tony and Okoye collect her pieces, and Steve collects the gauntlet, and Thor opens the bifrost and they go home. 

Thor, Rocket and Nebula give suggestions, and after a short deliberation, the infinity stones are spread across the universe once again. The time stone goes to Wong, back to the sanctum. The soul stone goes back where it belongs, and then Shuri erases it from Nebula’s memory files. The mind stone gets left buried under several layers of protection of Shuri’s own design. The space stone is put into Thor’s care once again. Rocket has a surprisingly trustworthy contact who finds them a place to hide the reality stone. The power stone goes to someone Wong recommends to them, when they return the time stone. The gauntlet is destroyed, and Thor makes sure any trace of how it was created is removed from the universe.

It’s imperfect, but it’s good enough, for now. Thanos is dead and the stones are separated again, and no one else currently alive is stupid enough to try what he did. 

They’re sitting in Shuri’s lab, quietly celebrating their too-late-victory when they hear one of the guards shout in surprise. 

Steve and Rhodey leap into action, Thor close behind, only to find Queen Ramonda standing in the entrance to the lab. 

Queen Ramonda, who had, until that moment, been a pile of ash. 

No one speaks or moves for a long moment, stunned into frozen silence, until Shuri shrieks and sprints across the room, throwing her arms around her mother. 

“Thanos’ death,” Thor mutters. “The infinity stones are all powerful. Thanos used them, but he did not control them. Now that he is no longer living, the stones are righting what he did, because that is not what was meant to happen to this universe. Thanos’ balance is not the balance the stones know.”

“Oh my god,” Steve mutters, and a glance out Shuri’s lab windows tells them Thor is right. Without Thanos there to maintain his hold on the reality he had created, it was falling apart. 

Soldiers who had fallen during the battle were beginning to reappear where they had disappeared. 

“Bucky,” Steve whispers, taking off at a dead sprint out of the lab, moving as fast as he possibly can to get to where Bucky had disappeared. 

When he finds him, Sam is there too, and soldier or not, Steve can’t help the half devastated half relieved sound that spills from his mouth, crashing into them both and holding them against him as tight as he can, uncaring of his extra strength. 

Thor and Rocket aren’t too far behind Steve, greeting soldiers they meet on their way down until Rocket spots Groot, and he scampers across the field to latch onto him tightly. 

Steve isn’t intending on letting go anytime soon until he hears a scared voice call his name. He turns to see Wanda, her hands shaking and he runs over to hug her instead. 

T’Challa finds them like that, and Steve finally pulls himself together. Walking back towards the compound, they reunite with Rocket, Groot and Thor, and when they’re about halfway back they quite literally run into Tony, the man crashing into Thor and gripping onto his shirt as tightly as possible. 

“Please- Thor-  _ Peter _ \- I- I have to go to Titan, Thor  _ please _ .” He’s babbling, desperate in a way they’ve never seen before. “Thor, Thor please I need to go to Titan, I need to,  _ Peter _ , Strange-“ 

Thor understands, and he gathers Tony under one arm while the other summons his axe, opening the bifrost and leaving. 

Once they’re all back together, minus Thor and Tony, Wanda speaks up for the first time since calling for Steve. 

“What happened to Vision?” she asks, and Steve sighs before he answers her. 

“We had to seperate and hide the stones again, Wanda. I’m sorry.” 

She’s devastated, red wisps of magic tumbling from her hands until someone points it out, and she shuts it down and storms off somewhere to grieve. 

Shuri screams again when she sees her brother, jumping into his arms and gripping his shoulders, with T’Challa holding back just as tightly. 

Once they seperate, he turns to where the rest of the group are gathered. 

“Has young Peter returned?” T’Challa asks, causing confusion among those that hadn’t ‘died’. 

“Stark left with Thor to go get him and those aliens off the other planet,” Sam says, making Rocket glare at him. 

“What do you know about my friends?!” he snaps, teeth bared. 

“I am Groot.” 

“What do you  _ mean _ you  _ met each other _ ?!” 

“I am Gr-“

The tree is interrupted by a loud crash a few rooms down, followed by Thor, Tony, Strange, Peter, and the rest of the Guardians filing into the room in a manner that is anything but orderly. There are greetings, more hugs, and a few introductions for those that haven’t met, and then Quill and Nebula get close, and a green woman appears out of nowhere. 

“Gamora!” Quill yells, ecstatic, wrapping his arms around her tightly, only to be pulled off by Nebula so she can do the same. 

“How?” Nebula asks, and Gamora shakes her head slightly. 

“The soul stone was returned, so my soul was returned in exchange.” She smiles, and Quill beams and steps forward and kisses her desperately. 

“Tony, I need to see my Aunt May,” Peter says then, his voice small and hoarse, like he’s afraid to interrupt what’s going on around him. “Please, I need to make sure she’s okay.” His lips are trembling, his hands are shaking, and everyone is reminded of just how young he is. 

“I can get you home, spiderling,” Thor says, wielding his axe again. “I can send you via the bifrost, would this be acceptable?” 

Peter nods, not thinking of the consequences, just wanting to see his only family again. With a flash of rainbow light he’s gone, and Tony drops to his knees with nothing else around to catch him. 

“ _ Thank fuck _ ,” he whimpers, relief spreading through his veins. After holding him in his arms as he died, Peter was finally safe and home with his family. 

They were all back home with their families. Together. 

Safe.

Maybe not okay. They’re all a long way from okay. 

But safe. 

That’s enough for now.

**Author's Note:**

> find us on tumblr at _[deafclintbartn](http://deafclintbartn.tumblr.com/)_ and _[autisticbarryhallen](http://autisticbarryhallen.tumblr.com/)_


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